Workshop (footage will be provided for you to practice editing and get one-on-one feedback).

Brent Joseph is a New Orleans filmmaker who specializes in post-postproduction. He edited the SXSW feature film Five Time Champion as well as numerous shorts, commercials and documentaries like Shell Shocked (PBS) and MTV’s True Life: I’m Living in Iraq (2005 Edward R. Morrow award for Best TV Network News Documentary). He has also worked as an assistant in the editing rooms of David Fincher, Larry Clark, David Simon and Seth Rogen.

NOVAC’s summer camps and workshops give kids throughout Southeastern LA the opportunity to try out video storytelling, and learn from working filmmakers in a fun, hands-on workshop. Our past programs have included weekend and school-year workshops at NOVAC and in partnership with Big Class, the Ogden Museum and more. For 2017, we are offering FREE summer week-long workshops with the New Orleans Public Libraries and the East Baton Rouge Public Libraries – stay tuned for specific branches and dates!

BATON ROUGE:

NOVAC and the East Baton Rouge Parish Libraries are hosting FREE teen video camps at local libraries this summer. Students will learn the basics of video production, including design, storyboarding, production, post-production, effects and more, through the hands-on process of creating a video, under the guidance of an experienced local filmmaker.

The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, in partnership with the New Orleans Video Access Center, presents the second annual RETROPERSPECTIVE, a documentary showcase featuring the best in documentaries by and about southern Louisiana, with classic feature-length films paired with upcoming works-in-progress by current New Orleans filmmakers. This three-day showcase aims to connect the legacies of documentary filmmaking in the region with new and innovative works happening today.

The weekend kicks off with a cocktail reception on Friday, February 3rd at 6pm at the new George and Joyce Wein Jazz & Heritage Center (1225 N. Rampart Street). The New Orleans Video Access Center and the New Orleans Documentary Meetup are partnering to host the event, which will be followed by the opening night film, A House Divided.

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 3:

Black and White

7pm: A HOUSE DIVIDED (Ware, 1987), preceded by NEUTRAL GROUND & GOMELA. Retroperspective kicks off with a documentary filmmaker meetup, and at 7pm we will show Burwell Ware’s 1987 documentary, executive produced by Sybil Morial, about the segregation and integration of New Orleans through the eyes of those who remember it. Featuring New Orleans politicians, luminaries including Oretha Castle Haley and narrated by James Earl Jones, this film begs the question of how much progress we have made in race relations in New Orleans today. Paired with this film will be a work-in-progress screening of Neutral Ground, by CJ Hunt, which looks at the Confederate Monument scandal, and Gomela, a poetic short accompaniment to Junebug Theater’s dance and theater production. Filmmaker Burwell Ware will be in attendance.

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 4:

1pm: 2017 Music Video Production Project Launch.
NOVAC will host an informational session on the annual class, followed by a showcase of videos completed in the past two years. Musicians interested in a free music video are strongly encouraged to attend.

2:30pm: Forgotten Bayou (2016). Bayou Corne, Louisiana was once a thriving Cajun community. On August 3, 2012 a sinkhole swallowed a swath of nearby swamps and after a mandatory evacuation ordered, residents were left with an impossible choice: start their lives over elsewhere, or stay and face the risks. Forgotten Bayou chronicles the events leading up to the tragedy as well as the continuing ways it has altered their lives.

4:30pm: Tootie’s Last Suit (2009). In the aftermath of Katrina, the film bears witness to the Mardi Gras Indians who, in picking up the threads of their torn lives and tradition, are the spiritual healers of New Orleans. Followed by a Skype Q&A with filmmaker Lisa Katzman. The feature will be preceded by Hail To The Queens, a work-in-progress by local filmmaker Brian Nelson.

7pm Doctor: Untitled Professor Longhair Documentary (2016). This is the first screening of an extraordinary work-in-progress about an infamous local character. We welcome you to attend this “piano night” and you will not “shuffle” away disappointed.

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 5:

3pm: My Louisiana Love (2012). Tracing a young woman’s quest to find a place in her Native American community as it reels from decades of environmental degradation, My Louisiana Love is a modern story of love, loss, and resilience in Southeast Louisiana. Co-producer and co-writer Monique Michelle Verdin will be in attendance.

5pm: A Look at Street Photography: a program by the New Orleans Photo Alliance. This block will include In the Spirit: The Photography of Michael P. Smith (2009), a short film by Kevin McCaffery, and Don’t Blink (2016), the award-winning documentary about the life and times of Robert Frank, followed by a discussion on the ethics of street photography. The New Orleans Photo Alliance strives to be a cultural stimulus, which fosters economic and artistic growth while preserving the rich and diverse photographic culture of New Orleans and the southern region.

Join us on February 4th at 12pm at the George and Joyce Wein Jazz & Heritage Center (1225 N Rampart St. New Orleans) for the official launch of the 2017 Music Video Production Project. This will be a one-hour info session, free and open to the public, where you can learn all about the class, what we’ve done in the past and what we will be producing this year!

Thanks to the Jazz & Heritage Foundation, this is the third year in a row we are able to offer free music videos to a variety of local musicians, as we pair talented filmmakers and eager students in the A-Z process of making a top quality creative product.

NOVAC is a Louisiana Department of Education certified provider of Career and Technical Education programs through the Jump Start program, training high school students in Digital Media pathway courses. This means we offer Carnegie-Unit high school classes in Graphic Design with Adobe Photoshop, Visual Storytelling with Adobe Premiere, and Independent Design Studio, for students seeking expert certification. We currently offer these courses at local high schools in partnership with those schools, so are not taking independent student applications.

If you are interested in bringing a NOVAC Born Digital CTE program to your school, or you have a student that is interested in the program, please contact Julia Berghammer for more information at julia@novacvideo.org.

Currently we partner with three schools in the Greater New Orleans Area, Joseph S. Clark Preparatory High School (Tremé), GW Carver Collegiate Academy (Gentilly) and Fisher High School (Lafitte, LA). We look to expand our program to include additional New Orleans schools and Baton Rouge sites in 2017-2018. Interested in partnering? Contact ED Darcy McKinnon at darcy@novacvideo.org.

Want to know more about working in creative digital media? The challenge with working in creative fields is that there’s just so many of them, and they overlap and interact. NOVAC internships give young people hands on experience in a variety of CDM fields, from videography and editing to photography, motion graphics, design, video archiving and general workplace knowledge. NOVAC offers internships to young people from a variety of backgrounds, ages 16-24, and can customize the internship to meet each person’s need while supporting NOVAC’s work. In the past five years, NOVAC has hosted over 30 interns, from YouthForce NOLA, IWES’ Kellogg Cool program, Tulane, UNO, Loyola, LSU, Southern, Brandeis, Columbia, Howard, and more.

NOVAC: Baton Rouge partnered with local filmmaker Teddy Smith to create a series of videos for the Louisiana District Judges Association, designed to help self-represented litigants be prepared for and navigate representing themselves in court.

NOVAC and Breathe Video Nation partnered with the Greater New Orleans Foundation to help three local organizations, the New Orleans Women’s Shelter, NAMI New Orleans and Eden House to create video pitches highlighting their work, as part of the IMPACT 100 Giving Circle. The NOWS video featured above was part of the pitch that helped secure the organization’s $100,000 grant from IMPACT 100.

NOVAC, filmmaker Ben Long and sound designer Ian Painter collaborated with the International School of Louisiana to create 12 videos in 3 languages designed to connect incoming teachers from around the world with the practices and ethos of working at ISL. Big kudos to Ben Long for editing in three languages, only one of which does he speak!